Kate McCann said the festive season can be a hugely painful time for families who have to live with the agony of a missing child.

Madeleine was four-years-old when disappeared the family’s rented holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in May 2007 and has never been seen since.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Mrs McCann said: “The last Christmas I ever spent with my daughter is a very vivid memory for me.

“She was three years old then and at nursery had just started to learn some Christmas carols.

“She also loved doing the accompaniment to Dean Martin’s Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. I can still hear her singing it now. For her present that year we had bought Madeleine and her younger brother and sister a kitchen station which we wrapped with a bow and left for her to find when she came downstairs.

“I remember seeing her face when she walked in. She was beside herself. She was so excited and got straight to work preparing us all a meal.

“That was a lovely moment. I have bought a Christmas present for Madeleine every year since then but that toy cooker was the last one I ever saw her open.”

Mrs McCann said the first Christmas after Madeleine went missing she felt so numb she could not face buying presents or cards or even putting up the Christmas tree at the family home in Rothley, Leicestershire.

But she added: “Each year I’ve made a bit more effort and we’ve dealt with it as best we can.

“After all, our other two children who are now 12-years-old deserve a Christmas as well. That doesn’t mean it isn’t hard. Everything is tinged with pain.

“That absence is tangible for all our family, the emotion still palpable. It’s impossible to shake off that heaviness ever-present on your chest. But you just have to try.”

Mrs McCann said she always prepares a Christmas stocking for her other two children and also one for Madeleine.

She said: "The presents I buy for her usually have to jump out at me. She would be a teenager now so I always try and pick something that would be suitable and enjoyable for her no matter what age she is when she gets to open them.

"In my head I guess I just want everything for be right for her when she comes back home.

"The loft is filled with the presents I have bought for Madeleine and her wardrobe, too. Like many families of missing children we have kept her bedroom exactly the same as it was when she disappeared.

"The irony is I’m sure she wouldn’t want it like that anymore because it’s bright pink."

Scotland Yard Detectives working on the £12million Operation Grange inquiry are still investigating Madeleine’s disappearance.